STIM'ZO : Examining tDCS as an add-on Treatment for Persistent Symptoms in Schizophrenia

Summary

This project aims to provide the proof of concept for transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS) in the treatment of resistant/persistent Schizophrenia symptoms. The purpose is to investigate the effect of tDCS on symptoms in schizophrenic patients demonstrating a partial response to a first frequently prescribed antipsychotic medication. An early optimization of the therapeutic strategy must constitute an important factor for prognosis. Hypothesize is that tDCS should alleviate symptoms in patients depending on the clinical characteristics. In this study, stimulation is an add-on treatment to antipsychotic medication, and will be used in a broad variety of patients, i.e. in patients with varied durations of illness, various symptoms profiles, and various levels of treatment response. This in turn will allow the determination of the extent to which results can be generalized to varied patient populations, as well as the extent to which various therapeutic targets (e.g. different symptom dimensions, cognitive performance and brain connectivity) may be improved with tDCS. Despite interesting preliminary results, our team is unable to describe optimal non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) response markers.

This study is a randomized, double blind, controlled, French multicenter study (11 centers). The investigators plan to include 144 patients with persistent symptoms in schizophrenia. Seventy two subjects will receive active tDCS and 72 subjects will receive sham tDCS (placebo). Hypothesize is a lasting effect of active tDCS on the schizophrenic symptoms as measured by the number of responders, defined as a decrease of at least 25% of symptoms as measured by a standardized clinical scale score (PANSS) between baseline and after the 10-session tDCS regimen.

Furthermore, the participants believe that an in depth understanding of the cortical effects of tDCS could constitute an important step towards improving the technique and developing treatment response markers. An analysis of the effects on cortical activity and plasticity markers could be an interesting approach.

Conditions

• Mental Disorders
• Schizophrenia

Interventions

DEVICE

Neuroconn or Neuroelectric tDCS stimulator

Stimulation parameters were chosen in conformity with those for the treatment of schizophrenic symptoms (Brunelin et al, 2012), adapted according to the latest data from the literature and the tDCS operating stimulator. The experimental tDCS group will receive the ACTIVE stimulation with the following parameters: oscillatory Direct Current with high frequency random noise stimulation (hf-tRNS - 100 to 500 Hz), Intensity = 2 mA, offset = + 1 mA, seance duration = 20 minutes ramp up/ramp down 30 seconds. Total number of sessions = 10 (sessions twice daily for 5 days separated by at least 2 hours for 5 consecutive weekdays).

DEVICE

Sham tDCS

The control group will receive the SHAM stimulation (placebo) following the same regimen (i.e., twice daily sessions separated by at least 2 hours for 5 consecutive weekdays). Sham stimulation consists of a 20 minutes session including 40 seconds of active stimulation (same parameters as in the ACTIVE arm) at the beginning of the sessions, whatever the stimulator

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Hospices Civils de Lyon

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-05-30

Primary Completion

2022-05-31

Completion

2022-10-19

Countries

• France
• Monaco

Study Locations